Minor League Hockey: Wings fall to Owatonna

SPORTS

December 02, 2010

An unusual flurry of penalties and missed scoring opportunities led the Aberdeen Wings to a home loss.

Owatonna took a 2-1 lead into the third period and salted the game away with two goals in the final period for a 4-1 win on Friday at Odde Ice Center in a North American Hockey League game. The Wings have now lost four games in a row.

The two teams combined for 15 penalties for a total of 30 minutes, although neither team scored a short-handed goal.

They capitalized on their opportunities and we didn't, said Aberdeen coach Pete Sauer. We had a lot of real close calls. We had penalty trouble. A senseless mistake cost us that third goal and took us out of the game. It was a good hockey game. It is uncharacteristic for us to have that amount of penalties.

The Owatonna Express took an early 1-0 lead on Antti Helanto's goal in the first period. The Wings tied the game on a goal by Mack Ohnsted with an assist to Tim Tuscher just six minutes into the second period, but that would be all of the scoring for the home team.

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It's always frustrating when you have to kill penalties because it takes time even if they don't score, which is a good thing. We still burn two minutes of our time that we could be out there scoring goals, said Sauer.

Owatonna's Chris Bournazos scored goals three and four for the Express in the third period. The last goal came with about a minute left in the game when the Wings pulled their goalie.

We just weren't getting enough shots and that's something we've been working on, said Sauer. We'll continue to work on it. It was a close hockey game; closer than the score. We made two big mistakes at the end and it cost us big.

Owatonna outshot Aberdeen 34 to 27.

Aberdeen and Owatonna return to the ice tonight at 7:15 p.m. at Odde Ice Center. It will mark the third game in three days for the Aberdeen team.

It wears you down but that's what you do in junior hockey, said Sauer. You don't even talk about it. You don't even think about it. You just go do it.